Lately, we have seen a lot of new radical designs that feature all electric, autonomous and top of the line hybrid vehicles that are announcing that the future for the auto industry is drastically changing and that it is very near. The whole bunch of automakers is giving all they got to keep up with the competition in this segment, and so far we have seen all sorts of ideas and concepts, some of them nice some not, but the latest one from Volkswagen is really stunning. They have shown us that they are not afraid of the future and that they still got the game.
The autonomous EV concept from German carmaker that you can see on the pictures here has been found on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) patent register. The rendering has been posted on the VW Vortex forums by user aladis. As you can see on the images, the word radical might be an understatement with this concept. It is conceived as a vehicle that will have ultimate aerodynamic efficiency with its very short hood, sweeping roof, conical back and what seems to be a shark-like fin in the middle of where the back window is supposed to be. The way in and out of the car is provided by what appears to be gull-wing doors that stretch from the front wheel arches, in a single piece, to the back wheel arches.
Apparently, this is an all-electric concept, meaning it is powered by the electric motor only and has or will have an autonomous drive capability. The possibility of the autonomous driving is somewhat confirmed by the clear absence of the front and back windshield while the side windows, according to the renderings, are present. What is most likely to power this concept is the much talked about and recently revealed MEB modular electric vehicle toolkit which debuted on the Volkswagen ID concept in latest Paris auto show. New vehicle, if you didn’t catch it on the Paris floor, is the new Golf-sized electric car that is due for production sometime by 2025 and it will be the first of many EV’s that are supposed to move the company away from the “clean diesel” technology.
The ID Concept is powered by a single 125 kW electric motor while the somewhat larger, at least according to renderings, gull-wing door concept will probably feature slightly more powerful setup and battery. One another possibility is that it will be powered by multiple electric motors that are supposed to give it all four wheel drive capability. The retractable steering wheel, while in autonomous driving mode will surely be transferred to this concept from the ID as well.
